Nether Haddon, Derbyshire
Historical Description
Haddon, Nether, a township in Derbyshire, on the river Wye, 2 miles NW of Bowsley station, and 2 SE of Bakewell. Post town, Bakewell. Acreage, 1499; population, 17. The Duke of Rutland is lord of the manor. The manor belonged at Domesday to Henry de Ferrars; was given by the Conqueror to William Peveril, the famous " Peveril of the Peak;" reverted to the Crown in the time of Henry II.; was then given to the Avenalls; passed by marriage to the Vemons, the last of whom, Sir George Vernon, who died in 1567, was styled the " King of the Peak," and went afterwards to the Manners family (Earls and Dukes of Rutland). Haddon Hall, the baronial seat of the manor, was inhabited by the Mannerses till the time of Queen Anne; stands on an elevated limestone ridge overhanging the Wye, in one of the most picturesque tracts in the county; and is an object of romantic interest, at once for its historical associations, its architectural features, and its picturesque surroundings. " The magnitude of this venerable pile of buildings," says Rhodes, " its castellated form, and its embattled turrets rising above the trees that adorn and encompass it, have a magnificent effect, especially when seen from the vale between Haddon and Rowsley." The pile comprises erections of different date, forms two quadrangles with interior courts, has a gateway tower supposed to have been built in the time of Edward III., and consists partly of portions which may have been constructed for defence, but mainly of portions for baronial and domestic oses. One apartment in it is the chaplain's room, with a curious matchlock, a pair of huge boots and some other incongruous relics; another is the chapel, of Norman date with later additions, and a Norman font; another is the great hall, the Martindale Hall of Scott's " Peveril of the Peak," 35 feet long and 25 wide, with a dais and music gallery and a Roman altar in its porch, and some curious relics in its interior; another is the dining-room, all wainscotted, once very magnificent, and still possessing carved portraits of Henry VII., his queen, and his jester; another is the drawing-room, hung with arras, and having an old state chair; another is the long gallery or ballroom, 110 .feet in length and 17 in width, wainscotted with oak, ornamented with Corinthian pilasters, and carved on the frieze with the crests of the Vemons and the Mannerses; another is the ante-room, adorned on the walls with numerous old paintings, and leading through Dorothy Vemon's door, by which she is supposed to have escaped from the hall on her elopement, to Dorothy Vernon's walk; and another is the state bedroom, hung with Gobelins tapestry, and containing a state bed occupied at Belvoir by the Prince Regent, afterwards George IV., and brought hither partly on account of 5ts hangings having been made, or believed to have been made, by the lady of Sir Robert Manners. The view S from the Peveril's Tower and from the bridge over the Wye is very beautiful. "Haddon! within thy silent halls, Deserted courts and turrets high, How mournfully on memory falls Past scenes of antique pageantry. "Where are the high and stotely dames
Of princely Vemon's banner'd hall—
And where the knights, and what their names,
Who led them forth to festival—
Haddon! thy chivalry are fled!
The tilt and tourney's brave array, "Where knights in steel from heel to head, Bore love's or honour's prize away."
Church Records
Ancestry.co.uk, in conjunction with the Derbyshire Record Office, have the Church of England Baptisms (1538-1916), Marriages and Banns (1538-1932), and Burials (1538-1991) online.
Land and Property
A full transcript of the Return of Owners of Land in 1873 for Derbyshire is online.
Newspapers and Periodicals
The British Newspaper Archive have fully searchable digitised copies of the following Derbyshire papers online: